Day to day, Michala Svane heads up sales and marketing at Tivoli as CMO and senior vice president. Michala is setting new standards at Denmark’s biggest tourist attraction, among other things with the switch from the traditional annual pass to the digital, rolling Tivoli Card we know today.
In this episode, Michala talks about life as a CMO and how, on her journey within Tivoli, she has widened her area of responsibility and got sales and marketing working together. She also explains how she accepts that her employees make mistakes, and that she would rather hold back a wild horse than try to wake a dead one.
Michala is dedicated to her work, and that has its downsides too. At times she has been away from her children more than she wanted. So she has learnt to take time away from work and prioritise other things that give her new energy.
Michala also talks about how she has broken down the silos within the organisation. She gives her take on what good leadership is and what you need to be able to do as a leader. And she shares what she thought a leader needed when she started out: “I thought that as a leader you had to have all the answers. I learnt it’s not about having the answers. It’s about being able to ask the questions.”
Michala ends the episode by explaining that Tivoli always sets the bar high and lives by its founder’s words that “Tivoli will never be finished”. So we can expect new initiatives from Tivoli in the near future.